Overheard Conversation
by White Angel of Auralon
Summary: Harry overhears a conversation between two of his teachers early into the first year at Hogwarts. What he hears makes him ponder about how he's going about his school work. He decides to take action and make his parents proud of his performance. Just how will that little change influence the events taking place at the school?
1. Chapter 1

**Hi, everybody, I've just finished this new story, which I'll post as a two-shot. I've been pondering about a lot of stories where Harry gets some kind of wake-up call in his later years at Hogwarts. Now I thought, what if he got it early into his first year? What if he did something normal, like simply asking for help from his classmates and teachers? Well, this little story is the result.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter and only play in JKR's sandbox.**

**Summary: Harry overhears a conversation between two of his teachers early into the first year at Hogwarts. What he hears makes him ponder about how he's going about his school work. He decides to take action and make his parents proud of his performance. Just how will that little change influence the events taking place at the school?**

* * *

**Overheard Conversation**

Darkness had fallen outside and the way clouds were assembling over the mountains promised rain during the night. Harry was on the way back to Gryffindor Tower. He had just finished Quidditch training and really wanted to take a long, hot shower. It had been quite cold on his broom and Oliver was a slave driver when it concerned Quidditch drills. The only positive thing was that the rain that seemed to be coming hadn't decided to start while the Gryffindor team had still been training.

When he turned around the corner to take the next set of stairs upstairs, sometimes he cursed the fact that the Gryffindor common room was on the seventh floor, even if he loved the view from any of the windows over the large grounds, he heard two people talking in low voices. Or at least it seemed to be like that, as he was quite a bit away from them. When he got closer, he recognised them as Professors McGonagall and Flitwick.

"So again your new students can't really compete with the top of the year," Flitwick said with a somewhat disappointed voice.

"Sadly yes. And I had so much hope for Miss Granger and Mr Potter when the year started. Miss Granger seemed to be so well-prepared and from how intelligent James and Lily were, I thought their son would have similar traits. Especially Lily couldn't wait to learn anything about magic. But Potter simply doesn't put the effort into this classes. I know that he's quite bright, but for some reason he appears to not want to do too well in his classes. I have seen the first grades of all our colleagues and it really pains me that nearly all my Gryffindors rank lower than the other houses," Professor McGonagall admitted sadly.

"Could it be that Mr Potter looks too much towards Mr Weasley? I had the impression that he didn't want to anger him by doing better in class," Flitwick asked.

Harry pondered about that. Did he really do that? Well, in primary school he had had to hide his intelligence to not have Dudley beat him up even more than he already did. Not to mention that Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon always yelled at him if he did better than Dudley.

"It might be. But if he continues like that, he'll never manage to be seen as more than the Boy-Who-Lived. You know how people are. They look for the most outstanding characteristics and if there aren't any, they'll make them up. I can understand that he had trouble finding into life here, thanks to his relatives never telling him anything about the wizarding world, but I would think he of all muggle-raised people would have read the introductory books closely," McGonagall huffed.

'Which introductory books?' Harry thought. 'I never got any kind of books like that, only the school books. Perhaps Dean can help, he's muggleborn after all.'

Harry was determined to find out if there were that kind of books that muggleborns got, but he didn't, because everybody expected him to know everything about the wizarding world for some stupid reason.

"Yes, he should have. Professor Dumbledore would have told him to read them before coming here," Flitwick agreed.

'When would I have spoken to Professor Dumbledore? Hagrid took me shopping,' Harry wondered.

"I just hope that some of my Gryffindors will come around soon. I mean, I can take that your students are at the top of the year ranking, you lead the house for the smart students after all, Filius, but having all the Hufflepuffs and the smarter Slytherins overtaking my students really hurts," McGonagall said.

'Wait a moment, didn't Hermione do especially well in our classes? I mean she was the first one to at least do something to her match first class. And she said she had been able to do some easier spells on the train,' Harry was confused. 'And wasn't Hermione at the top of the list that was posted at the Gryffindor notice board?'

He was determined to find that part out now. And perhaps he really should put more effort into his work. He really didn't want to disappoint his head of house like that. She had after all allowed him to join the Quidditch team and even given him his broom. The least he could do was doing better in class and try to overtake a few others in the overall ranking.

* * *

Harry looked at the notice board and his suspicion was confirmed. In the ranking at the end of the first two months Hermione was at the top of the list for the Gryffindor first years. But there was no mention of where they were in the overall ranking of their year. His next stop was Dean, who sat on his bed, laughing about something Seamus had told him.

"Hey, Dean, I have a question that I thought you might be able to answer," Harry asked when he stored his Nimbus 2000 in his trunk.

"Sure, Harry, what do you want to know?" Dean asked.

"I overheard some teachers talk about an introductory book for muggleborns. Does that really exist?" Harry asked.

"Yes. Actually there are three, but Professor McGonagall gave me a copy of the most important one when she visited me and my family to tell me that I was a wizard. I was told the titles of the other two, but I don't have them. I asked at Flourish & Blott's what additional information they had and mostly it was about the kinds of jobs in the wizarding world, which will probably useful when it's time to decide that part, and the other on magical households. I decided that I could get that one later as well, as I'll live with my parents till graduation anyway, so if I want to take a wizarding flat that would be when I need that knowledge," Dean informed Harry. "Professor McGonagall then arranged a date to take us to Diagon Alley for school shopping and told me to read as much of the book as I could before that, as it would help a lot in understanding the wizarding world. She also told me that it was expected that muggleborns put in the effort to fit into the wizarding world better," Dean answered.

"Do you by any chance have that book with you? I didn't get one when Hagrid took me school shopping. Probably he wasn't aware that I would need one as I'm not muggleborn. Even if I know as much as any muggleborn new to the wizarding world would," Harry said, surprising Seamus.

"Wait, so you had no idea you were a wizard before you got your letter?" He asked shocked.

"No, my aunt and uncle hate magic and always told me it didn't exist. They even tried to prevent me coming to Hogwarts by not allowing me to read my letter. Then Uncle Vernon even tried to outrun the letters, but on my birthday Hagrid came and told me everything and took me school shopping," Harry said.

"No wonder that you have so much trouble in class!" Dean exclaimed. "Sure, I have the book with me."

"Uh, what should I know that helps in class?" Harry asked having a bad feeling.

"In the book there are some really important exercises to have an easier time to use your magic correctly. Not to mention that I would be a disaster in Potions if I hadn't read the basic techniques for brewing. It's not really a lot, but without them you would be completely lost," Dean said.

"Great and no teacher thought to tell me before now. Can I borrow your book until I can order my own?" Harry asked. "And if I think about it, the last two would probably be something I should also read as people always think that I should know everything."

"Of course, Harry," Dean said and looked for the book in his trunk.

"Uhm, this might be a personal question, Harry, but as I understand your relatives don't like you having magic. Is that the reason why the only clothes that seem to fit you are the school uniforms?" Seamus asked carefully.

"Yes," Harry confirmed sighing. "They couldn't be bothered to get me anything that fit. The clothes I have were all Dudley's, my cousin, at one point and he is on his way to become as large as a baby killer whale."

"Really, that's bad. If you want, you could owl order some fitting ones. I know that Parvati and Lavender have a catalogue for clothes. I know that I overheard some older students mocking your clothes behind your back," Seamus suggested.

"That's possible? I would really like some new clothes. But how would I be able to pay the bill? My money is at Gringotts and I only have some spending money with me," Harry asked.

"You can authorize the goblins to transfer the amount of the bill by sending them a letter and a copy of the bill. You just need to fill out the order form with what you want and how many of each and then give them your personal information. That contains your name and birthday and where the things you order should be delivered. My Mam uses that service quite a lot. She says that the companies shrink the items you order down to fit into a package that one or two owls can carry easily and then send them off," Seamus explained.

"That's neat. I'll ask Parvati at dinner. Thanks, Seamus," Harry said gratefully.

"No problem, Harry," Seamus replied.

"Hah, found it!" Dean cried out triumphantly. "Here you are, Harry." He handed Harry a green book that seemed to have about a hundred and fifty pages.

On the cover he saw the title and some pictures from Diagon Alley.

"Thanks, Dean. I'll give it back as soon as I have my own copy. Do you know where I can get an owl order form for Flourish & Blott's?" Harry asked.

"They should lie out in the common room," Dean answered.

Harry nodded, but wondered why nobody had told them this when they arrived.

* * *

Harry needed three days to get through the book as he used every free minute that he had to get through the information he should have been given before even starting at Hogwarts. He was really angry that he hadn't known all of the important things that were mentioned. This would have been really useful in class. Not to mention that he now had to make a trip to the hospital wing to get his inoculations against the most common wizarding diseases. He surprised Madam Pomfrey when he asked if she could take care that he got them all and when asked why he didn't go to St. Mungo's before school started, he truthfully said that he hadn't known that he needed to do that because Hagrid forgot to give him the introductory book for muggleborns.

She then took care of him having all shots and also gave him the basic physical exam that all first-years also had to have done. She wasn't impressed with his physical condition. There were some problems with nutrients, but thankfully it wasn't too bad. Aunt Petunia had never really starved Harry, but he didn't get to eat as much as he would have liked and there were periods when he went hungry after a case of accidental magic, now he knew what it was, or when Dudley had accused him of doing something wrong, normally to hide his own wrongdoings. That had caused him to be a bit too small and underweight for his age. His eyes also needed some treatment as having to stay in the small and most often dark cupboard hadn't done them any favours. She told him that she would have to arrange a visit with an optician as his prescription was wrong for his eyes, which only harmed them more. Otherwise she gave him a potion to increase his appetite so that he would eat more at meals to make up for the height and weight problems.

With a bit of time and good food he should catch up to the others in his year easily. Harry was happy to hear that, even if the potion didn't taste nice. She told him to come to her once every two weeks to get a new dose of the potion. She would check his progress once a month to see if that was all that needed to be done. Harry nodded and promised to do that.

* * *

After finishing with the introductory book, he started taking up some suggestions on how to better keep up in class. The book suggested, as muggleborns didn't have an easy understanding of how magic worked, compared to wizarding raised children that grew up around magic, that you read the next two chapters of your books before the classes. It would help you get the concepts that the teachers talked about better and would let you have more success. Another tip was to make small cards for any kind of potions ingredient you used in class and write down the main properties and what effect each method of preparation would have for it. Over time you would get a big card box, but it made learning Potions much easier next to Herbology and in some parts Care of Magical Creatures.

Next to that you should practice the beginner spells that you learned until they came to you naturally to get a better feeling for the flow of your magic. So, to the ire of Ron, who didn't understand why Harry had suddenly turned into a bookworm, Harry started doing just that. And once he got into the habit of reading, his reading speed increased as well. The practicing was no problem, that was fun and now that he knew why he should practice the spells he had already learned, he made a habit of writing them down and then performing them one after another until he could do them ten times of ten. He also asked where he could get a card box like the book had recommended and in the end Angelina promised to get him one when she went to Hogsmeade the next time as he wasn't allowed to visit the village yet.

Harry's book and clothes orders arrived two days apart about a week after he had sent the requests out with Hedwig. He looked at the total amounts on the bills and thought it wasn't that much. Dean had told Harry that while the exchange rates from pounds to galleons and the other way round were a bit skewed up, you could say that you got about the same amount of things for one galleon as for fifty pounds. He had to pay two sickles for each of the books and four galleons for his new clothes. He had ordered four basic sets of trousers and shirts, all with added convenience charms like auto temperature and tear protection, some sets of underwear and socks and some everyday robes on advice of Parvati and Lavender who had proven to have a good sense of fashion. Harry was glad that the two girls had helped him out choosing new clothes as he had honestly been lost on what to get except for the basics.

So from there on he finally didn't have to wear Dudley's old clothes anymore. The only class where he used one of Dudley's old shirts over his normal clothes was Herbology, as in that class you easily got dirty.

Next to better preparing for classes, he set two hours each day aside for doing his homework. It depended on when he had Quidditch training, but after asking the three chasers how they organised getting their homework done while playing, he had some good ideas on how to work. Angelina and Alicia's suggestions were especially useful as they had two or three more classes that they took than he did with electives being started in third year. Angelina told him to prioritize his homework assignments by days. For example if you got a Transfiguration essay on Monday that was due on Friday, you should start looking up information on Wednesday at the latest. That way you got it done on time and well enough to satisfy your teachers. And normally you got one bigger assignment per class in one week next to practicing spells that you learned in class while you were in first year. So with that method you could easily get all of it done while still having enough free time.

* * *

"Why are you studying again, Harry? Come on, let's play chess," Ron whined.

"Ron, I have told you that I want to get my homework done and have the weekend free," Harry sighed. "While Oliver has thankfully conceded that with the snow Quidditch training outside wouldn't work out well, he has somehow found out about how muggle sports teams train and he got an empty classroom for our team to work on things that can be trained without a broom. Which means he'll have all of us do physical exercises on the weekend. I know that with that I'll probably be too sore to concentrate on homework."

"But we have more than enough time to get everything done," Ron tried again.

"Ron, I think it's a good thing that Harry wants to get his homework done early on. Why don't you join us until he's done and play chess afterwards?" Hermione suggested.

"No, I don't want to do homework now. I want to play chess," Ron complained.

Harry thought he sounded like a toddler that was denied sweets.

"Then ask somebody who's not doing his homework," Hermione snapped. "Why not Neville? He's simply watching Dean and Seamus."

"Hmph," Ron said, but walked over to ask Neville to play.

"Honestly. What's wrong with him?" Hermione complained.

"I don't know," Harry answered and turned his eyes back onto his Herbology book.

* * *

Harry got a real surprise when the next ranking of their year appeared on the board in the common room the week before the Christmas break started. He had climbed from being sixth of their year in Gryffindor to being tied for first with Hermione. That was at least some improvement. He just wondered where he was overall in his year. Perhaps he could ask Professor McGonagall. He told Hermione and Ron that he was going to see their head of house and before Ron could ask too many questions about the reason, he was out of the common room. It didn't take long until he had reached Professor McGonagall's office. He knocked and was called inside.

"Mr Potter, what can I do for you?" McGonagall asked surprised.

"I wondered if you could answer some questions that I had, Professor," Harry answered.

"I'll do my best, Mr Potter. Please take a seat," She pointed at an armchair in corner where two other armchairs were next to a table.

"Thank you, Professor," Harry replied and sat down in the comfortable armchair.

"Would you like some tea?" She asked.

"Yes, please," Harry agreed.

She conjured a tea set and put a cup in front of him.

"How do you take it?" She wanted to know.

"Just half a spoon of sugar please," Harry answered and took the cup after she was finished.

When McGonagall had her tea ready, she looked at him expectantly.

"So what kind of questions did you have, Mr Potter?"

"Well, first I wondered about the class rankings that were posted again today. I noticed that there wasn't any information how we did compared to the other houses. Just Gryffindor. I found out at the beginning of November that I didn't get the introductory book for muggleborns and Dean loaned me his copy that you gave him during the visit he got until I got my own. After I read the book, classes became a lot easier for me. I also remembered how Hagrid told me that my Mum and Dad were headboy and headgirl in their time here, when he took me school shopping in Diagon Alley and you only get that position if you have really good grades. I don't want to disappoint them, so I tried doing better in class," Harry explained.

"I see," She said and pursed her lips. Then she smiled. "I noticed that you improved from November on, but I didn't know that you had had such a disadvantage in the beginning. I was of the opinion that Professor Dumbledore had taken you to introduce you to the wizarding world. Well, we indeed only post the rankings within the houses as most students aren't too concerned about their overall standing in the year. Especially the younger years normally only care for passing their classes properly. I guess you would like to know your overall ranking as you asked?"

"That would be great," Harry confirmed.

Professor McGonagall walked over to a filing cabinet and pulled out a normal looking brown file.

"This is your student file. Each teacher informs the head of the student's house once a month about the overall grades the students reached in class. The heads of houses have the responsibility to tell the students in their house if they are failing their classes and if there is a serious problem with the students simply not getting the material tutoring can be arranged. Next to that I got the examination report from Madam Pomfrey about your visit with her. The other students had the healers at St. Mungo's forward them. Next to your grades the file also contains reports on disciplinary actions that were given out," She explained.

"Okay, that makes sense," Harry agreed.

"Now, during the first ranking after two months you were ranked thirty second of the year. Which makes a lot more sense now that I know that you didn't have the book. For the last ranking you reached nineteenth of your year, sharing the spot with Miss Granger," She informed him. "I was very pleased to see a real improvement in your grades. Where you were previously simply passing your classes, now you normally get above average grades with really good ones in Charms and Transfiguration."

Harry nodded, that was good to know.

"How comes that Hermione isn't better than that? I would have thought that she would rank higher? I mean, she always puts so much effort into her work," Harry asked, honestly curious about that part.

If he, by simply doing a bit more, managed to climb thirteen ranks, why didn't she do better with all the work she did?

"Well, Miss Granger has a very impressive amount of information that she learned by heart, but in some classes that's not enough. You need to understand the material and express it in your own words. Not to mention that after an orientation period of three months the teachers expect that the students learn how to structure their essays to the point. Miss Granger, despite many comments on her essays to keep to the assigned length of the essay, hasn't understood that it will influence her grades negatively. That's why she isn't ranked higher," Professor McGonagall answered. "Next to that we don't only take into account that a student can perform a spell, we also watch how well the student does the spell. In the beginning it is enough to simply get the effect you are looking for, but after the first three months we want to see a beginning feeling for your magic. The earlier you learn to feel if a spell is working correctly, the easier you'll have it later on. Silent casting, which means using spells without the incantations, is taught from sixth year on to the NEWT students. If you don't have that feeling for your magic and can use it instinctually, you won't ever learn silent casting."

That was interesting to know. And it made sense to him. You had to build up basic knowledge and skills in any kind of sports too for example. You couldn't start running one day and expect to be able to run a full marathon.

"Okay, what would I need to do to improve my ranking more? While I'm happy that I already managed to climb higher, I would like to be better. I always hear that my parents were so great at school that I feel I should be able to at least get into the top ten," Harry said.

"Well, the two classes that drag your grades down most are Potions and History of Magic. And while I know that many Gryffindors have trouble in Professor Snape's classes, his grades are always completely fair. No teacher can give a student better or worse grades than their work is worth. It is a rule of the school and part of the teacher's contract. The penalties to not grade fairly are too severe for any teacher to risk that," McGonagall pointed out.

"The only thing a teacher can do is setting a high standard for all students, which Professor Snape does. But his subject is more dangerous than for example Charms, as it is more difficult to undo consequences of accidents. Therefore he has the right to grade harsher. The one thing required is that he does that with all students. If you really want to improve, you should look up books on ingredient preparation and reasons for the use of certain brewing methods. As the Christmas break is starting next week, you can probably find the information you need then. Madam Pince will be able to point you to the books that are the most helpful in that regard."

"Thank you, I'll try that. Another thing I wondered about, is there a way to prevent my relatives from taking away my school things when I return there next summer?" Harry asked.

"Why would they do that?" She asked shocked.

"They hate magic and call it freakish. Last summer they were too scared of what I could do to them now that I knew about magic to try anything. They'll think that if I don't have my things they'll be safer. And I'm really not strong enough to make Uncle Vernon see reason that I need to do homework or anything," Harry answered honestly.

"That's indeed a problem. I knew that they were the worst sort of muggles after watching them before you were placed with them, but I wasn't informed of any problems when I asked about your condition over the years," McGonagall informed him.

"You asked about me? And you watched them?" Harry exclaimed surprised.

She gave him a small sad smile.

"Indeed I did. Your parents were some of my favourite students and I kept in contact with them after they graduated. Your father especially was a one of a kind prodigy in Transfiguration. He had a natural talent for it like you seem to have for flying. So when I heard about the rumours of your parents dying and you surviving the attack on your home, I was of course worried and didn't know if the rumours had it right or not. There were too many ridiculous stories flying around to be sure what was true and what not. From Madam Pomfrey, who had treated your injuries after the attack, you had some cuts and bruises from when the room was destroyed by the backfiring killing curse, I had heard that Professor Dumbledore planned to leave you with your maternal relatives. I went there early in the morning, as classes had been cancelled for a week, as nobody could keep the students concentrated on their studies. Not to mention that many teachers were also too happy that the threat of Voldemort was gone," She added with a small smile.

"I thought going there early on was my best option, as I didn't know when exactly Professor Dumbledore planned leaving your there. I really wasn't impressed with the family. The son was allowed to get away with anything, even kicking his mother, the father was overweight to the extreme and the mother nasty and backstabbing. Not to mention she looked down on the babies of other families when she was at the playground with her son," McGonagall described. "I argued against the plans of the headmaster, but he insisted that it would be best for you if you grew up away from your fame, which you wouldn't be able to understand as a small child. I conceded to that point and as your aunt was your mother's sister, I thought that over time she would probably be able to care for you. Lily was a wonderful person, always kind and helpful, even if she could have a nasty temperament. In her younger years here at Hogwarts that mainly happened when your father and his friends played another prank on somebody. Your father needed to grow up a bit before she started to like him."

"Wow, I never knew that. Aunt Petunia never talks about Mum and I'm not allowed to ask questions," Harry said in wonder about finding out more about his parents.

McGonagall hid a frown. No wonder that the boy needed time to get used to things. If he had always been forbidden to ask questions, he would first need to feel safe enough to ask.

"I'll see to it that your trunk and your owl cage are warded before you return home, Mr Potter. There are ways to keep anybody not keyed into wards from taking the things protected by them away," She promised.

"Thank you, Professor, that's great. Another question I had was how I could travel easiest when I'm staying in the muggle world. I mean, I couldn't really pay for anything as I only have wizarding currency and not muggle currency," Harry said. "Last time Hagrid paid for my train tickets, but when I need more supplies, it'll be difficult to get to Diagon Alley."

"You did read the passage about the floo system in your introductory book, correct?" She asked.

"Yes, I did. It sounds like a neat way to get from one point to another, but Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon will never agree to let a connection be installed at their house," Harry said confused.

"I realise that and it's also not allowed to connect muggle houses to the network. But there is a squib that lives in your neighbourhood. Her name is Arabella Figg and she's an old acquaintance of mine. If I asked her to allow you to use her floo access, that would solve the problem," McGonagall explained.

"Huh, Mrs Figg knows about the magical world?" Harry asked surprised.

"You know her?" McGonagall now asked in surprise.

"Yes, she babysat me when the Dursleys went on trips or on vacation. While I liked her house better than Number 4, it always reeked of cabbage and she insisted on showing me the pictures of all of her cats," Harry grumbled a bit. "Uh, what's a squib?"

"A squib is a person with two magical parents who can't use magic himself. Basically it's the opposite of a muggleborn," McGonagall explained.

"How does that happen?" Harry asked. "I thought if your parents were magical you would be as well."

"Nobody really knows. Some dunderheads have theories that muggleborns stole the magic from squibs, but that's really ridiculous. Those people are bigots that simply look for reasons to deny muggleborns the right to learn magic like all other witches and wizards. The more likely possibility is that squibs that went to live in the muggle world had families and that in their descendants the combination of traits coincidentally resulted in a witch or wizard being born. Nobody really traces squib lines down, so it is a distinct possibility. I personally think that thanks to many people marrying people that were too closely related to them, because they wanted to keep their lines pure, they weakened their bloodlines and magic retaliated by making their children squibs," She pointed out.

"Like marrying your cousin?" Harry asked with a horrified expression on his face.

"Yes. Some were crazy enough to marry first or second cousins. One family that is extinct now even forced siblings to marry. The Gaunts never had much sense. The last two children, Morfin and Merope I think they were called, were very weak magically and didn't get letters to Hogwarts. I only know because an uncle of mine needed to go there as a member of the law enforcement patrol in a case of muggle baiting and injuring," She told him. "The son was sent to Azkaban for life later on for murdering a muggle family that lived in the village. The father died shortly after being released from Azkaban and nobody really knew what happened to the daughter except that the goblins one day declared the Gaunt line extinct in the male line with nobody living with the surname Gaunt."

Harry swore he would never marry a close relative. That was simply wrong.

"Okay, I think that would help with the travelling. And if I can take my trunk with me through the floo I can simply walk to the station for the school train. Charing Cross Road isn't too far away from King's Cross station." Harry pondered.

"Or you could simply use the floo to one of the secluded floo points around King's Cross station. Most people in the wizarding world either apparate or use the floo to get to the station. While we couldn't manage to get enough fireplaces onto the platform, the Ministry managed to buy an old building directly next to the station and set up about thirty fireplaces with floo connection there," She told Harry.

"Oh, that's much better, you're right. So you would only need to pass through the station without the muggles being too suspicious," He realised.

"Correct. Many prefer using the floo as apparating needs skill and side-along apparition is more difficult than normal apparition. You'll learn how to do that in your sixth year and can take the test when you're seventeen. As your birthday is at the end of July, you would have to go to the Ministry in London for your test contrary to others in your year that can attempt to get their licence at the end of sixth year in the course that the Ministry offers each year," She explained.

Harry nodded, mentally making a note to look up what apparition was exactly. He finished his tea and thanked McGonagall for the information and the tea and then returned to his common room.

* * *

Harry followed Professor McGonagall's advice and asked Madam Pince on books for understanding Potions better and got three titles that held the information he needed as a first-year. She told him that there was a compendium of all ingredients reactions that he should get if he wanted to take the class up to NEWTs as it held all the information he could want. Another advantage was that it also held the information on the currently known ingredients and their effect in potions. The Hogwarts library had that compendium in the restricted section as it was too expensive to be allowed outside of the library. It was a self-updating copy and those always cost three times as much as the normal copies.

Harry for now took the books that would get him through first and second year Potions and made a note of the compendium's title to get his own copy sometime later. He started reading the first book on ingredient reactions and was surprised to find out that the preparation method influenced the effect that an ingredient had on a potion. While the main property would stay the same, for example if an ingredient generally had numbing effects that wouldn't change from the preparation method, but it could happen that if you diced an ingredient it would need to be boiled without stirring and if you crushed it you had to lower the heat and stir for five minutes. Potions really was complicated.

For History of Magic Harry decided that he could never stay awake in the class, so he asked Madam Pomfrey for earplugs, supposedly to sleep easier while Ron snored. After all, the silencing charm was only taught in fourth year. He got them, but was warned to not use them in any other class than History with a wink. Seemingly other students had had the same idea as him.

* * *

Harry was busy reading through his notes on History. As the method with the cards had worked so well for Potions and Herbology, as the ingredients simply were often the same as the plants they covered in Herbology and he had decided that if he made the cards from the beginning he could save time when the plants came up as ingredients later on, he had set up cards for major events in History. His History box wasn't sorted by the letter the ingredient started with, but by years. Binns sadly only concentrated on the goblin rebellions and perhaps let them do essays on other events for homework. So now that Harry had decided to set up cards again, he read through his history book and wrote down the year in the upper left corner of each card, which was only half the width of the card and served as a register.

He knew that there were gaps in what he knew so far, but he was getting to the point where he wanted to be. He used the starting dates of the goblin rebellions to sort them and simply noted the length, the reasons they took place, the major players on both sides and the results on the card. Then several important laws that were passed like the Stature of Secrecy, the ban on cross species breeding, the Grindelwald war and so on. Harry decided that History of Magic could be quite fascinating if you didn't have to listen to Binns.

He had also tried to tell Hermione that she needed to keep to the assigned length of her essays more, stating that there had to be reasons why the teachers always wrote that under her too long ones. But she proved to be stubborn and said that no teacher would truly care if she put more correct information into her essays. After a few tries Harry gave up on that part. He didn't want her to get a bad wake-up call at the end of the year, but she didn't believe him that it would be marked down. And she pointed out that the teachers would inform her if she wasn't doing well in her classes. Harry only hoped that in the end she wouldn't be too disappointed.

* * *

Harry was worried about the information that there was a Philosopher's Stone hidden at Hogwarts. Why in the world would anybody bring such an artefact to Hogwarts when there had been attempts to steal it from Gringotts? At least now he knew what Fluffy was guarding. Ron was prattling on about what he could buy from the gold that a Philosopher's Stone would give him. Harry meanwhile had to concentrate on the next Quidditch match. The news that Snape was refereeing wasn't good news as he was sure to not only be biased against Gryffindor, but he also feared about him trying to curse his broom again or doing something else.

While in class Harry was now doing a lot better, as he understood why he needed to do certain things, Snape was still horrible to him. He listened to Ron and Hermione's suggestions of how to avoid the match.

"No, I won't refuse to play. First that would be giving in to Snape's games and second Gryffindor has no reserve seeker. If I don't play, the team can't play at all, which would let Hufflepuff win automatically," Harry declared.

"But what if he curses your broom again?" Ron asked.

"I doubt he will be able to do that after what happened in the first match. The other teachers will prevent it. I told Madam Hooch what happened the day after the match as I wanted to know what I could do to prevent it," Harry said.

"And, did she have an idea?" Hermione asked eagerly.

"No, but she promised to watch out for any signs of foul play more closely for the next matches. Next to that the ground of the Quidditch pitch got layered with cushioning charms. So even if I fell I would at most break a bone now. Normally, if I manage to simply avoid landing on my head, I should be okay," Harry told them.

"That's a relief," Hermione said, but gave Ron a significant look which meant that she planned something else.

* * *

Harry was immensely relieved when Alicia told him that Dumbledore was also among the people watching the match. He wouldn't have to worry about sabotage against him now. He could simply play the best he could. He would follow Oliver's instructions and make sure to catch the snitch as soon as possible. They walked out onto the pitch and the captains of both teams shook hands. Once they were in the air it was clear that Snape wouldn't referee fairly and decided many times against Gryffindor. Harry concentrated on spotting the snitch to end this before Snape could unfairly give Hufflepuff enough points to win despite him finding the snitch.

Then he saw the small golden ball a bit under Snape. He shot down past his most hated teacher and followed the snitch before anybody could really work out what he was doing. Thankfully this snitch seemed to be as surprised as the spectators as it didn't put up much of a fight. Harry quickly closed his hand around it and held it up high over his head. The end result was 160 to 20 for Gryffindor. The match hadn't even lasted five minutes and had to be some record.

"I see you have found a good way to deal with what the mirror showed you… keeping busy, excellent," Harry heard Dumbledores amused voice next to him.

Harry knew that this was about him finding the Mirror of Erised over the Christmas break. The pictures it had shown him had caused him nightmares and he had only found some release in working hard on the Quidditch team and working till late into the night on his schoolwork so that he was too tired to dream much.

* * *

**So, that was the first chapter, the second and final one will come out next weekend. Till then.**


	2. Chapter 2

**And here is the second and last chapter of this story. Thanks for all the reviews and fav's. And in case somebody is interested to write a sequel, you're welcome to take the story up where I leave it. I don't plan to write a sequel myself. Just write me a PM, I'd be interested to see your ideas where to take the story from the end.**

**Now happy reading.**

* * *

**Results of Hard Work**

It was the end of April and the next ranking had been pinned to the notice boards. Harry surprisingly was now first while Hermione was second.

"How did you manage to overtake Hermione?" Ron asked Harry shocked.

"Must be because my grades in both Potions and History got better," Harry said, wondering if he had managed to get into the top ten by now. "That's the major change to before."

"But Hermione is the only one that can stay awake in Binns' classes. And Snape is an evil git," Ron insisted.

"No, Harry stays awake as well, even if he doesn't pay attention to Professor Binns," Hermione spoke up behind them pointedly.

"You know how boring he is. At least I work on History in the class and don't play games or sleep," Harry defended himself.

"I guess that's true, but you really shouldn't use the earplugs in class," She complained.

"It's the best way to not fall asleep and I've noticed that History can be pretty interesting as long as you don't have to cover goblin rebellions over and over again. There's a lot more to history than goblin rebellions," Harry said.

Hermione grumbling admitted to that.

"But how can you be this good?" Ron asked.

"I study, Ron. You may complain about the two hours that I set aside for homework and studying, but it really helps," Harry said. "It also saves me from being berated by Hermione all the time."

He got a light slap to his shoulder for that from said girl.

"Prat," She said, but grinned.

It was true after all that she nagged Ron all the time to do his homework properly and not leave it all for the last moment.

* * *

Harry went to Professor McGonagall again to find out about his overall standing. It had been four months since their last talk and he was really curious where he ranked now. It was a new concept for him to be able to compete for top spots in school with his fellow students, but the Dursleys wouldn't want to see his magical report card anyway so there was no reason to hold back anymore.

"Ah, Mr Potter, I guess you are curious about your new ranking in the year?" Professor McGonagall asked smiling.

"Yes, I am. Thanks for the suggestions by the way, they really helped with Potions," Harry said.

"You're welcome. I also heard you found out about the earplugs trick for History?" She asked.

"You knew?" Harry asked astonished.

"Of course I did. You're not the first student to go with self-study in that class. I have been taught by Professor Binns as well in school and I know how hard it is to pay attention to him. So this one time I'll ignore that you use them to not have to listen to your teacher, but don't let me find out about it in other classes," She warned.

"I won't Professor," Harry promised.

"Alright, let me get your file, then we can see where you are," She said and walked to her filing cabinet and got his file. "Now let's see. Your History grades have improved by one full grade, if you were in fifth year and taking your OWLs that would make you one of a handful of students each year to get an E, which is the second passing grade below O, the highest possible grade." She commented.

"What are the requirements for the grades, Professor McGonagall? I mean our homework is always graded in percentage," Harry asked.

"Well, ninety percent and better will get you an O, which means Outstanding. Seventy five per cent to eighty nine percent is E for Exceeds Expectations. Sixty to seventy four per cent is A for Acceptable and the last passing grade. Then come P for Poor from forty five to fifty nine per cent, D for Dreadful from thirty to forty four per cent and last T for Troll for anything below thirty per cent," She listed the grades.

"So I get somewhere between seventy five and eighty nine per cent in History now?" He asked.

"Yes, in fact you are around eighty five per cent all the time, which is really good," She said and smiled at him.

Harry nodded smiling back.

"Next is your Potions grade that has really improved. You normally stand between high E and low O there now. Your practical work is a bit behind your written work there, but I'm sure you can get that even higher with some practice. Your mother was really good at Potions and was the only one in her year that could give Professor Snape competition for the top spot," McGonagall told him.

"Mum was good in Potions? I thought Charms was her best class," Harry wanted to know.

"Oh, she was fantastic in Charms. In fact she was so good that Professor Flitwick offered her an apprenticeship once she was ready. With the war going on, she asked to wait for a while and then she found out that she was pregnant with you. She sadly never got to start it. I think you may have inherited her talent in the area. Professor Flitwick is full of praise for your classwork. You get solid ninety five per cent from him," She looked at the Charms grade.

"Wow, I knew that my essays always got over ninety per cent now, but to think he also grades my wandwork like that is incredible," Harry said happily. "Could you tell me my other grades as well? That would be helpful in preparing for the end-of-year exams to see where I should put more effort in."

"Yes, let's see. You currently get ninety one per cent in Transfiguration, which pleases me a lot. In Herbology you have eighty eight per cent at the moment. Astronomy is eighty six per cent, Defence Against the Dark Arts is eighty six as well and Potions currently the average is eighty nine, but you could get into the nineties there," She read out the grades. "Overall that gives you fourteenth rank in your year."

"Thank you for the information, Professor. Just out of curiosity, if I understand it right, the ranking depends on the average percentage of all classes, right?" Harry said.

"Correct," She confirmed nodding.

"What percentage do the ones in the top ten have?" Harry wanted to know.

"Hm, let's see. I can't really tell you who the students in those spots are, but I can tell you the average. There is the list," She said pulling a piece of parchment from the drawer of her desk. "Currently the top student of the year has an average of ninety six per cent. The one ranked tenth has an average of ninety per cent."

"Okay, then I'm not that far away," Harry stated. "Thank you."

"As I said, you're welcome. Few of the Gryffindors really ask about their performance in class. It's nice to see how you want to do the best that you can," She complimented him.

* * *

Harry really was worried about Hagrid's stubbornness with the dragon. Not only did he not want to give it up, he was convinced that he could train it that it wouldn't be a danger to anybody. Harry wasn't as sure as Hagrid was about that. The dragon would grow fast as Hermione had said and he didn't like the idea of a dragon running around the grounds. Not to mention that Hagrid's hut could burn down and then questions would be asked about it. And Harry didn't want that Hagrid got into trouble.

* * *

Harry winced when Madam Pomfrey took care of his hand. Stupid Norbert. He had bitten Harry when Harry had pushed Ron out of the way. Ron hadn't looked for a moment while he prepared some of the meat that Hagrid was now feeding the young dragon. You couldn't really call it small anymore. And the bite had hurt. Not to mention that Harry felt his hand swelling massively, which was why he had gone to Madam Pomfrey that evening and hadn't risked waiting if it went away. She had reprimanded him for not coming immediately and he was sure that she didn't fully believe his story about some animal that he didn't see properly when he walked along the edge of the Forbidden Forest biting him. As a result of the wound having started to be infected Harry had to stay the night in the hospital wing and take some potions. He was also told that he would have to be careful with his hand, thankfully it was his left and he was right-handed, for the next week.

That meant that Ron and Hermione needed to get the dragon to the meeting point. After all, it needed to go fast, as Malfoy had seen the dragon, and if Harry knew one thing about the git, he would try and find a way to get Harry in trouble over it. Malfoy hated how Harry was doing so well in Quidditch and now in his classes as well. Especially how he had improved massively in Potions. Before Harry had found out which books he should read to become better in the subject, Malfoy had been the undisputed top student in that class. Now Harry had caught up a good bit and couldn't be made fun of in class anymore. Of course that didn't stop Snape the git from giving snide remarks, but he wasn't able to give Harry bad grades, as much as he wanted to. Harry was incredibly glad for that part in the teachers' contracts. Potions was hard enough with Snape never explaining anything properly.

Once Madam Pomfrey was done with the treatment, Hermione and Ron were allowed to see him.

"Oh Harry, what did she say?" Hermione asked concerned.

"That I have to stay overnight and perhaps tomorrow as well. She was also quite cross that I didn't come to her immediately. I also will have to be careful with my left hand for next week. Oliver won't be happy that I'll have to miss three practice units," Harry sighed.

"Well, at least you don't have to stay in the hospital wing for too long. Do you need anything?" Hermione asked.

"If you could bring me my book bag with all my books for Potions, Herbology and Astronomy it would be nice. If I'm stuck here, I can as well spend the time reading up on some things to revise for the exams," Harry said unenthusiastically.

"I'll do that," Hermione promised.

"If you're out, what should we do with next Saturday?" Ron asked in a whisper. "Charlie's letter said to get Norbert to the Astronomy tower at midnight."

"You and Hermione can do it. I'll let you borrow my invisibility cloak, but please be careful with it," Harry said.

"I'll make sure that you get it back once we're done," Hermione promised.

* * *

Harry got an unwanted visitor in Draco Malfoy the next day. With his goons in tow of course.

"So scarhead, bitten off more than you can chew?" Draco sneered.

"Do you want anything, Malfoy?" Harry asked keeping his calm. "As you can see I'm revising for the exams and that won't work as well if you bother me."

"Don't think that I won't use your little secret," Malfoy threatened.

"I'm sure you will. Anything else?" Harry asked.

"Think you're better than the rest of us, Potter? Think that you'll be allowed to get away with it?" Malfoy asked louder now, not realising that Madam Pomfrey was not happy with him being loud in the hospital wing.

She came out of her office and saw that Malfoy was disturbing her patient.

"Mr Malfoy, if you're only here to disturb Mr Potter, I insist that you leave right now. This is a hospital and not a playground," She told him off.

Malfoy, knowing that the healer was in the stronger position, skulked away, Crabbe and Goyle following. Harry swore he heard Madam Pomfrey grumble about spoiled brats. But he would need to warn Hermione and Ron about this. Malfoy could become a problem if he was annoyed enough to let the cat out of the bag before they could get Norbert away.

* * *

Saturday at one in the morning Hermione and Ron finally returned from getting Norbert away. Hermione handed him the invisibility cloak back.

"Bloody hell, that was close. Malfoy indeed was out and tried to get us. Man, why does he have to be such a pain in the arse?" Ron asked.

"Language, Ron," Hermione snapped. "At least Professor McGonagall caught him and didn't believe a word of his claims that you had a dragon, Harry."

"Yeah, but we nearly got caught anyway. Hermione remembered to put on the cloak once Charlie's friends were gone thankfully and we avoided that Filch caught us. He was sneaking around the door to Astronomy tower. I bet Malfoy also tipped him off," Ron stated.

"How did you manage to not be caught? There aren't any hiding places at the foot of the tower and if he walked up the stairs he would have bumped into you. You're only invisible and not intangible after all," Harry asked.

"Uhm, well, there is a broom closet halfway down the stairs," Hermione said and her face was really red now.

"So you got into the closet to hide?" Harry asked chuckling.

"Stop laughing. I really feared he had us when he opened the door. Thankfully with the cloak on he left again and walked up. Ron and I just waited until he was about halfway up from there and went downstairs as silently as we could. When we were a bit away, we took the direct route back here. I really don't want to do something like this again," Hermione stated.

"Well, that means that Malfoy won't be able to prove that there has been a dragon anymore and he'll on top have detention," Harry concluded. "I'm going to bed now. I just knew I wouldn't be able to sleep while you were out. Oh, and I stopped Neville. He wanted to warn us that Malfoy was lurking around, but I assured him that everything was under control. Thank god or he could have got in trouble for wanting to do the right thing."

"I wouldn't have thought he had it in him," Ron commented. "I'll go to bed as well. Night, Hermione." Ron said and the three went to their respective dorms.

* * *

Harry looked over his first exam paper. This didn't look too bad. It was DADA and he thought he could answer all questions. So when Professor Quirrell started the exam, he easily wrote the answers to the questions on the paper. He finished with twenty minutes to go, read over everything he had written one more time to check for spelling errors and grammar, adding one sentence to an answer and then putting his quill down ten minutes before the time was up. He felt quite good about this exam. He only hoped that the other classes would be similarly easy.

He knew that there wouldn't be a practical in this class as they hadn't really learned many spells yet. They had concentrated on lower level dark creatures and how to behave in a dangerous situation. Not to mention that most lectures had been lost in the stuttering of their teacher. No matter, he was sure that Professors McGonagall, Sprout, Snape and Flitwick would make more than up for the lack of practical work in this subject.

To his left he saw Hermione frantically checking her exam. He was quite sure that she didn't need to worry about passing. Concerning raw information she was a good bit ahead of him. And Professor Quirrell hadn't required more than listing some classes of spells, why they could be used in Defence Against the Dark Arts, habits of dark creatures and counters.

* * *

Harry looked at Professor McGonagall expectantly to hear the task for the exam. They first had a short paper test, having to explain two models of Transfiguration that they had learned about this year and giving incantation and wand movements for four spells. That had just taken half an hour for them all and now Professor McGonagall was calling them into the classroom one by one. The Hufflepuffs had been first, then the Slytherins, the Ravenclaws and now the Gryffindors were last. Probably a good idea to avoid the students having to wait mixed without somebody having an eye on them.

"Mr Potter, I want you to turn this mouse into a snuffbox for me," She said.

Harry nodded, concentrated on the spell, spoke the incantation and looked at the snuffbox that now sat in front of his teacher. She inspected the snuffbox critically. If he had to say, it was quite a nice snuffbox. There was no trace of the mouse anymore and he had decided to add the Gryffindor crest onto the lid.

"Very nice work, Mr Potter. Especially the added crest. That'll earn you a few extra points. You may go," She said and gave Harry a small smile.

He breathed a sigh of relief and left the room, happy to have passed another exam without much trouble.

* * *

History was probably the one exam where Harry knew that many would have trouble passing. Really, why couldn't the school employ a proper History of Magic teacher? The only reason he could answer most questions was that he had never really listened to the teacher. He could as well have skipped all History lessons and simply studied in the library. That would have been as, if not more, efficient. Well, he had finished his exams and he couldn't help but join the others cheering when Professor Binns told them to put their quills down.

Now they had two weeks where they didn't have to do much work until the results came. The fifth and seventh years would sit their OWLs and NEWTs during that time, so the younger years normally didn't get much homework because the teachers were too busy to grade it.

He, Ron and Hermione decided to go outside and enjoy the sun. They hadn't been able to do that properly for some time and today it was really warm. He simply lay down under a tree and watched lazily how the giant squid swam rounds in the Black Lake. He blended Hermione's babbling about being unsure about certain questions in the test out. For now he didn't want to hear anything about school. He only wanted to think about the Quidditch match in three days.

He saw Hagrid clean a bit outside of his hut. He wondered how Norbert was doing. He hadn't heard from him since they had sent him to Romania to the dragon preserve where Charlie was working. Then Harry sat up suddenly. That couldn't be true, could it? He stood up and ran towards Hagrid's hut, Hermione and Ron behind him calling out to him what was wrong. Harry didn't wait, he needed to find out if his fear was founded or not.

"Hey you three. Done with your exams?" Hagrid asked smiling.

"Yeah, we are," Ron replied.

"Want some cold pumpkin juice?" Hagrid asked, but before Ron could accept, Harry interrupted.

"Hagrid, the man that you got Norbert from, how did he look?" Harry asked.

"Well, I couldn't really see his face, he had it hidden under a hood the whole time," Hagrid said.

Harry heard the alarm bells in his head ringing shrilly.

"So, did you talk about Hogwarts?" Harry continued.

"Well, yes, of course we did. We played cards for a long while," Hagrid said.

"Did your work here come up?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, I think I told him that I was the game keeper. Though I don't remember everything exactly as I had a good amount of drinks inside after a while. He kept buying, so I didn't complain at all. After all, I lost some hands in the beginning before my luck turned," Hagrid told them.

"So you discussed some of the creatures you work with here," Harry said. "Did he ask more about them? I mean after all if he had a dragon on him, even if it was an egg, he would have wanted to make sure you could handle it."

"Yeah. In fact he did ask that. But I told him after Fluffy a dragon wasn't a problem anymore," Hagrid proudly informed them.

Now Hermione looked horrified as well.

"Was he interested in Fluffy?" Harry pressed on.

"Sure he was, I mean how often do you get to see a three headed dog? Even in our business. I told him the secret of controlling every creature is knowing how to calm them down. Take Fluffy for example. Play him a bit of music and he's fast asleep," Hagrid said then blanched. "I shouldn't have said that. Oi!" He shouted after the three but they were already running towards the castle.

"That man under the hood must have been Snape," Ron called out.

"And now he knows how to get past Fluffy. That was the only thing he didn't know after you overheard Quirrell breaking down," Hermione added.

"I know, we need to inform Dumbledore," Harry stated. "We need to find the twins or a teacher."

"Why the twins?" Hermione asked confused.

"If anybody knows where the headmaster's office is it would be them," Harry replied.

"Oh, that makes sense," Ron agreed.

They didn't find the twins, but met Professor McGonagall.

"What the hell is up that you're running around like this in the corridors?" She demanded to know.

"Professor, we need to speak to Professor Dumbledore," Harry said quickly.

"Why would you need to see him Mr Potter?" She asked.

"It's important," Hermione urged.

"Well, you'll have to wait until tomorrow. Professor Dumbledore got an urgent owl from the Ministry and will not return until late in the evening," She said.

"Great, so that part is also against us. Professor, can we talk somewhere where nobody can overhear us?" Harry asked, knowing that he needed to make his teacher see the reason for their worries.

She nodded and led them into an empty classroom.

"So what is this important?" She demanded to know.

"Somebody is trying to steal the Philosopher's Stone that is hidden on the third floor corridor," Harry said bluntly.

"How do you know about that? Students shouldn't know," She brought out shocked.

"We know and nobody explicitly said it, but Hagrid once slipped up that we should keep our noses out of the business of the Cerberus that guards the door, we found it accidentally when we took a wrong turn, didn't realise on which floor we were, and unlocked the door as there are many ways through the castle that need special tricks to open. He told us that whatever was there, was between Professor Dumbledore and Nicholas Flamel. Thanks to a chocolate frog card of Professor Dumbledore we made the connection to Alchemy and found out that Mr Flamel is the only known creator of the Philosopher's Stone," Harry knew that she wouldn't believe them if they didn't tell her what they knew and how they had found out. And so far she had proven reasonable throughout the year if she didn't think you were having her on.

"Today when I was relaxing after the exams, I realised something else about a conversation that Hagrid had once mentioned when we were drinking tea at his hut," He wouldn't tell her about the dragon if she didn't absolutely need to know. That would cause too many problems for Hagrid. "He said that he once played a game of cards with a man at the Hog's Head in Hogsmeade. I remembered it because Hagrid said that the man offered a dragon egg as his bet as Hagrid had been winning some large pots before that point and he wanted at least some of his lost money back. To make sure if Hagrid could take care of the dragon if he should win, the man asked about the creatures that Hagrid took care of in his job and Fluffy came up. Now the thing that hit me today was why would anybody even have a dragon egg on him? They are illegal to have after all. So I asked him and we found out that he told that man while being drunk that if you played music Fluffy would fall asleep," Harry ended.

"What?" McGonagall exclaimed. "Of all the stupid things. Please tell me that we didn't have a dragon on the grounds and that Mr Malfoy's story was made up."

"Well, I think Hagrid said that he lost that last game," Hermione now spoke up. "But he did some research on them and had a lot of books on them lying around. Perhaps Malfoy thought he was about to get one and overreacted?"

"Thank Merlin," McGonagall breathed a sigh of relief. "That could really be possible. Thank you for informing me about this. I'll take some measures to prevent that anybody can get to the stone. Take twenty points for Gryffindor for alerting me to this danger. Now go back to your common room or outside. Don't worry about the stone. Everything will be taken care of."

The three nodded and left the classroom. Once they were a bit away Ron spoke up.

"Blimey, Harry. Why did you have to tell her that much?" He asked.

"Because she would never have done anything or even believed me if I didn't give her some very good reasons. I'm glad you reacted so fast, Hermione. This way at least the most Hagrid has to fear is a tongue lashing about not even thinking of getting a dragon as a pet in the future," Harry answered. "Now she's aware that at least the first protection has been breached and will make sure that the others hold up or that nobody can even get into the corridor that leads to Fluffy's room."

"Yes, I'll sleep better now that I know that the teachers can take care of the problem. But what if she tells Snape?" Hermione asked.

"Then he will probably lie low and pretend to support the protection, but his time window will be closed. Professor Dumbledore will return sometime tonight. And no thief would be as stupid to make an attempt at the Stone while Dumbledore is in the school," Harry answered.

"I still think we should also do something," Ron insisted.

"No, we can't do anything against an adult wizard. The protections are made to stop adults. Fully qualified witches and wizards. If Hagrid hadn't slipped up, we wouldn't even have a chance to get past Fluffy. We know that the four heads of houses and Quirrell set up protections as well as Dumbledore himself. And now that the teachers are on guard, there shouldn't be any real danger," Harry pointed out.

Ron had to give at that argument. There wasn't a real chance of a first-year winning against a fully qualified wizard.

"If you want to do something, come with me to the Quidditch pitch and throw golf balls in random directions. I could do with some training for the match against Ravenclaw," Harry offered, knowing that Quidditch always cheered Ron up.

* * *

It seemed as if the whole school was present at the last Quidditch match of the season. Both Ravenclaw and Gryffindor were playing with their best teams and it promised to be a hard fought match. The chaser lines were about equal, Wood was definitely the better keeper and the twins had the instinctual coordination that the Ravenclaw beaters didn't have, but for non-twins they were really good as had been proven when they had torn Slytherin apart. Both Ravenclaw and Gryffindor had won their first two matches. That meant whoever won this match, would win the Quidditch Cup too. They were called outside and Wood and the Ravenclaw captain Barkaim shook hands. Barkaim was also Harry's opponent in the seeker position.

He was a seventh year and a lot bigger than Harry, but that didn't have to be an advantage as seeker. Madam Hooch blew her whistle and the teams shot into the air. This time Harry noticed he was closely marked by the opponent seeker. Probably because Ravenclaw didn't want to risk that he took a chance to catch the snitch as early as he had done during the Hufflepuff match. Well, that had to have shock value for the other teams.

Harry tried shaking his shadow off, but Barkaim was persistent. Harry kept looking out for a sign of the snitch, but so far it was elusive. When he was sure that the snitch wasn't in sight, he decided to try out one of the feinting tactics that Oliver had tried to teach him. He suddenly zoomed towards the Ravenclaw hoops, making it look as if he had seen the snitch. Barkaim following quickly. Harry kept an eye on the four beaters and when he noticed that one of the Ravenclaw beaters had hit a bludger at him, he grinned. That was perfect. He now only needed to get the timing right. He waited until the bludger was close to him before rolling away to the right. Barkaim who had been slightly behind him to the left tried to follow the direction change, but sadly that got him into the path of the bludger and had the ball smack him into the right shoulder hard.

Barkaim cried out in pain and then tried getting control back over his broom. Harry could see that the bludger had at least bruised his shoulder, if not dislocated it. The padding of the body armour that all Quidditch players were required to wear, normally should prevent broken bones on the torso. Arms and legs were another thing. Well, now that his opponent was clearly handicapped, Harry used the time to look for the snitch without interruption.

Then he saw a glimpse of gold at the bottom of the Gryffindor posts. He didn't really know what the score was currently, but he needed to use the chance that he had with the other seeker being injured. He could see that it was indeed the snitch and not a reflection of something else. It hovered next to the goalpost and only moved when it seemed to have noticed the danger coming closer. Harry followed the now fleeing snitch that put up a lot more resistance than the one in the last match against Hufflepuff. He saw that Barkaim was coming closer, but normally he should be able to get the snitch before he could close the gap.

The snitch climbed upwards before turning sharply to the right, giving Harry only a split second to react to the sudden change of direction. Harry pushed forward and could see him getting closer and closer to the snitch. Finally he was in reach. Barkaim was just behind him now, but too far away to try to grab the snitch himself. Harry reached out and grabbed the fluttering ball safely in his hand. Only now he heard the tumultuous roar of the Gryffindors in the crowd. He held the snitch up over his head. He had done it. They had done it. Gryffindor had won the Quidditch Cup. He had a look at the score. Seemed as if the chasers and Wood hadn't been idle either. 250 to 50. They had been fifty points in lead before Harry got the snitch.

The teams landed and then Harry got hugged from all sides by his team. They had won the cup for Gryffindor. Harry couldn't help but smile when Professor McGonagall got to hold the cup with tears in her eyes. After all, the Slytherins had had it for too long now. Harry was sure that the party for the winning of the cup would last even longer than normally.

* * *

Harry watched how Hermione looked at that notice board in the common room in disbelief.

"How could I only get thirteenth rank in our year?" She asked aghast. "I was first or second all year."

"Uh, Hermione, that was only the Gryffindor ranking. You didn't really think that Parvati, Lavender or Ron really were eighth, ninth or tenth in the whole year? Not with all the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs performing better in the classes that we shared with them," Harry pointed out carefully.

"But why didn't a teacher tell me? I could have worked more to get a better ranking," She complained.

"You didn't ask and nobody would bother telling you to do more work for school when all teachers were already aware that you did lots of hours each day. They wouldn't want to take the little free time you give yourself away. it would have made you sick. Not to mention that you didn't follow their comments on keeping your essays to the required length," Harry told her. "Professor McGonagall told me that they only allowed longer essays without it influencing your grades for the first three months. And you always got those comments under your essays."

"What? Why didn't you tell me?" She demanded to know.

"I did. I told you in February that you should follow the comments under your essays or it would influence your grades. You brushed me off that no teacher would ever do that," Harry defended himself. "I can't force you to listen to my advice."

"But that was just your advice," She protested.

"Which next to countless remarks from the teachers should have told you that they were serious. And if you wanted to know, you could have simply asked Professor McGonagall. And it isn't that you didn't get good grades in your exams. Others were simply better, that's nothing bad," Harry pointed out. "Not to mention that your exam grades probably brought your standing a good bit up. They were after all mostly asking for things we learned this year and I know you are good at remembering facts. I would even bet that you got top scores in History of Magic and Astronomy."

Those two tests had been pure questions of their knowledge.

"But I was always among the top three at primary school, most I was the best," She stated confused.

"That doesn't mean you would simply be able to do the same at a magical school where you have to compete with children that grew up around magic and have a totally different and more natural understanding of how magic works," Harry said patiently.

"Then how did you manage to get sixth rank of our year?" She asked annoyed.

"I have known my real ranking in our year since that first sheet was on our notice board. I knew that I wasn't really sixth in the whole year, but as I only got the introductory book for muggleborns around the beginning of November and only then used some of the information to do better in class, I first wanted to see where I could end with the help. I did better in class from there on and I got it confirmed with the second listing, so I went to ask Professor McGonagall. I had some more questions about how things work in the wizarding world and she answered them for me," Harry told her. "She also informed me in which classes I needed to improve most, which was Potions and History. Those two I was just passing securely. I asked how to do that and for Potions she could give me a few better books that would allow me to learn more about ingredient reactions."

"But I read those as well. I shouldn't be that much worse than you in Potions then," She stated.

"I have found that I have a somewhat easy time to puzzle things out when I get the basic information. Like with Hagrid and the dragon egg. So for Potions I can tell what kind of potion I will get if I combine certain ingredients. That helps in preventing mistakes, correcting ones that I made and getting my preparation of ingredients done properly. And say what you want, my method for History is great. I even got eighty five per cent on the exam," Harry defended his method to study History of Magic that Hermione had repeatedly criticised.

"Would you tell me what grades you got in each exam? I really don't understand how I was so far behind you. I mean, I don't think that you aren't smart. I have known that you are very intelligent since you started really applying yourself in class. It was obvious for anybody who looked," She said.

"Only if I get to see yours," Harry offered a deal.

She nodded and took her report card from her bag. Harry took his out and they swapped them. The report card held both her grades for the exam and the overall one that consisted of the average of the whole year.

Harry saw that Hermione had what would be E's in most of her classes with an O in Charms, Astronomy and in History. Her average grade was eighty eight per cent. His was ninety two. As he had thought, her end-of-year exams had been really good. She even got one hundred and twenty per cent in Charms, which was incredible. But she had always had a talent for tests. If she had taken the comments of the teachers serious during the year, she would have probably also come into one of the top ten spots. The end-of-year exams were after all just a part of the overall grade you got. And while you had to pass them to get into the next year, they only made up about a third of the overall grade. Well, there was always next year.

He had got high O's in Charms and Transfiguration, low O's in Potions and Herbology, eighty five per cent each in Astronomy and History and Defence rounded everything up with eighty nine per cent. He knew that he had done the best he could and he was really happy with his ranking. His goal had been getting into the top ten and he had managed that. Now nobody could say that he simply relied on his fame. He had shown that he was a good student and could even compete with the Ravenclaws.

* * *

Minerva McGonagall was a happy witch. For the first time in years one of her lions had managed to reach a spot in the top ten of his year. That it was the son of dear friends of her was all the much sweeter. Harry Potter had come in sixth of the current first-year batch with splendid ninety two per cent on average. The boy had really done well since she had given him the advice. Not to mention that his warning had prevented a catastrophe.

She had alerted the other heads of houses of the danger to the stone and that the first defence was overcome by a thief. She had tried to find Quirrell as well, but for some reason he had been absent. Then, when the alarm they had set up on the third floor corridor had gone off, they had gone there, only to find the Cerberus asleep already. They had quickly caught up with the thief, who incidentally was Quirrell. Severus and Filius had duelled him while she and Pomona had used their magic to support them where they could. In the end it turned out that Quirrell had been possessed by the wraith of Voldemort. He had sworn to take revenge on them and that Severus' life would end once he got his body back.

Well, now Albus needed to find a way to protect his useless spy in the future. Severus would never be able to enter the ranks of Voldemort again after that episode. She didn't think that Voldemort would believe that Severus had simply worked against him because he didn't know that it was him. At least they had prevented that the Stone was stolen and that any students were hurt.

* * *

Harry sat in the Great Hall and couldn't help but grin at seeing Gryffindor winning the House Cup. They were exactly five points leading before Slytherin. The last massive winning of points had been the twenty that he, Ron and Hermione had got for telling Professor McGonagall about the potential theft of the Philosopher's Stone. He knew that Snape had tried rewarding Slytherin insane amounts of points over the last week since the Quidditch match. But it hadn't been enough. Gryffindor had been really careful, even the Weasley twins, to not lose any points to his bias. In the end it had been enough.

The hall was decorated in red and gold to honour the winning house, which like the Quidditch Cup represented an end to the dominance of Slytherin in the house cup. Nobody but the Slytherins minded that Gryffindor had won. Everybody had been sick of the superiority behaviour of the Slytherins, so them not winning was very satisfying for all houses. He had fun with his friends and classmates during the feast and only the thought of going back to the Dursleys the next day dampened his mood. But right now he wouldn't think about them. He would enjoy his last day in the wizarding world until the next school year.

He had managed to overcome the ingrained behaviour concerning his studies, now he could also deal with them for the summer. While he would like it better to not return there, he didn't have a choice. There were no other relatives that could take him in, and he had asked Professor Dumbledore, so he was stuck for now. Ron had told him that he would invite him for a bit over the summer and Hermione promised to keep in contact as well. Dean had suggested to visit a football match together and Harry was looking forward to it. The best part was that Professor McGonagall had told him that she had paid the Dursleys a visit two days ago to make sure that they would treat him right. He had been handed a stack of special parchment to write her a letter every two weeks at least. If she didn't get the letter, she would come to see what was going on.

Harry was glad about that. The Dursleys would have to behave with the threat of a fully qualified witch coming to Privet Drive in case Harry didn't write or they forced him to write lies. It would make his summer much easier to endure.

* * *

Harry saw his relatives when he passed through the barrier of the platform to the muggle world. They didn't look happy at all. He met with the Weasleys and thanked Mrs Weasley for the presents she had sent him for Christmas. Once he was done, he took his trunk over to his aunt and uncle and it was clear that his uncle was repressing a shouting fit over the clear warnings that Professor McGonagall had delivered. Harry knew that this was something he didn't like, but in Harry's opinion it was high time that somebody stopped the mistreatment that Uncle Vernon put Harry through. His trunk and owl cage were charmed to protect his things and Hedwig, so there would be nothing they could do to them. The trunk would simply appear in Harry's room if Uncle Vernon took it away and locked it up somewhere and Hedwig's cage would automatically undo any lock that could be placed on it. Not to mention that the owl was protected against all kinds of attacks in there.

Harry took his trunk to the car, loaded it into the boot while taking Hedwig with him onto the backseat in her cage and then looked back at the station, hoping that the summer wouldn't last too long and that the time to return to Hogwarts would soon come.

* * *

**And done. Thanks for reading and as I said, if anybody wants to write a sequel, be creative!**


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